Sunday, February 07, 2016

Yes, Ted Cruz is That Bad

This is without question the most surreal, Twilight Zonish
election cycle that I’ve ever witnessed, and I’ve survived 10 different
administrations during my lifetime. We have a Democratic socialist versus a
moderate, establishment Dem, and a cast reunion of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest” on the Republican side. Of all the outrageous lies and accusations that
have been spewed by Trump, et. al., perhaps the most telling moment of the
campaign so far for me was an unscripted moment between Ted Cruz and one of his
daughters.

No one likes Ted Cruz with the exception of a small sliver
of neurologically underdeveloped white evangelical Christians, who wouldn’t
care if he sacrificed a goat onstage and drank its blood as long as his
speeches are peppered with the appropriate code words that all translate into
“We privileged white Christians are under attack and we must fight back. I will
lead our holy army.”

The Cruz problem that the rest of us have is that he’s a
smarmy, self-righteous liar who will do and say anything to win the Republican
nomination. Come on, you say, can he really be that bad? I respond confidently
with, “Yes, he can.”

Witness one Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz, a Republican Presidential
candidate and family man with two daughters. The video was supposed to be a
tender, “behind-the-scenes” clip of Cruz demonstrating his “warmth” by hugging
his oldest daughter, but then reality struck. As Cruz approaches his daughter
Caroline, she begins flicking her finger at him in an awkward, “Don’t come any
closer” gesture. But father Cruz, not wanting to let the potential aw-inspiring
ad spot be wasted, pushes toward the girl, smiling insanely, and then grabbing
her as if she is throwing an uncontrollable temper tantrum. Caroline pushes
against him with her hands until he finally lets her down, his phony smile
disappearing as she runs away from him.

Wow. The members of your own family treat you like a creepy
stranger. The problem for Ted is that the longer the election cycle, the more
you get to know him and the less you like him. In recent interviews, even his
college roommates and acquaintances dissed him for being an arrogant, religious
ass.

All of the Republican candidates have their unique problems
that should disqualify them from holding any elected office, let alone the
Presidency, but as we see and hear more and more of Ted Cruz the man, it is becoming
apparent he may in fact, be the worst of the lot. And that, friends, is pretty
damn bad.